HAL Airport

Encyclopedia : H : HA : HAL : HAL Airport

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HAL Airport or Hindustan Airport is the domestic and international airport for the city of Bangalore, India. The airport is presently the fourth busiest airport in India. It handles an estimated 6 million passengers a year at an average of 300 flights (take-offs and landings) per day.

The airport is maintained by Hindustan Aeronautics which uses it to test and develop aircraft for the Indian Armed Forces. Manufacturing and overhauling of such aircraft has averaged nearly one per DAY (on a company-wide, All-India basis) over the 40 year life span of the firm. Thus this activity, per se, may not have posed an insuperable barrier to the rapid growth of civilian air traffic at HAL airport. However, rapid growth of traffic at Bagalore Airport has reportedly had some (so far relatively minor) impact on military training flight schedules at the Indian Air Force base of Yelahanka, a scant 17 km away. Bangalore airport supposedly gives priority to civilian flight movements.

Contents

1 History
2 Structure
3 Airlines

3.1 Domestic
3.2 International

4 Airport upgrades
5 External links

History

Originally set up by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 1964 mainly for defence purposes, operations were extended for domestic commercial flights in the 1980s while the airport started to serve international destinations in 1997. In the past decade, the airport has gone through a series of expansions and upgradations to keep pace with the growing civilian air traffic in the city. While the rated capacity of the airport is 3.6 million passengers per year it is currently operating at a saturation level of 6 million. Reportedly HAL has recently requested airlines to discontinue the addition of flights to and from Bangalore.

In the late 1990s, friction started to arise between the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Hindustan Aeronautics. AAI wanted more control over airport management which HAL refused, citing national security concerns. The HAL airport is the site of much of HAL's test and research facility. Currently, more than 50% of the Indian Air Force fleet consists of aircraft manufactured by HAL. The airport's management issue also caused contention between the Indian Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Ministry. Thus turf wars may have been the major problem, and not over-riding operational factors. In 2005, a private consortium in which AAI was a minority shareholder, finally started construction on new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL). Once complete, BIAL will replace HAL airport as Bangalore's international and domestic airport while HAL airport will serve only as a test and research facility for HAL. The new airport is about 35 km from Bangalore and a new 6-lane highway is being built to access it. Travel time is estimated at about an hour. Hence low cost airlines are making strong representations to the Civil Aviation Minister to let them continue to use the more conveniently located HAL airport despite the contractual obligation to close down the airport's civil enclave.

Structure

There are separate check in sections for domestic and international departures, with a common arrival module. The airport has 2 aerobridges used for international aircraft.

For Domestic Departure, check in is located at two ends of the terminal - Gate 1 - for Indian Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines, while Gate 2 gives access to Jet Airways, Go Air, Air Deccan, Spice Jet, Jagsons, Air Sahara and Paramount.

International Departure is located at the first floor of the airport. In 2001 - 2002 a major Revamp of the International Departure was conducted. the Staff were given training in English and Customer Service. The Immigration counters were spruced up and this resulted in a smoother happier and quicker movement of passengers.

HAL Airport unlike many others is relatively close to the city centre (12 kms). A taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, in peak hour traffic takes between 1/2 - 1 hour.

Airlines

Domestic

International

Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
Air India (Chicago-O'Hare, Dubai, Frankfurt)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Emirates (Dubai) from October 2006
Gulf Air (Muscat, Bahrain)
Indian Airlines (Bahrain, Bangkok, Muscat, Sharjah, Singapore)
Jetstar Asia Airways (Singapore)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
Malaysian Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
Thai Airways (Bangkok)
Royal Nepal Airlines (Kathmandu)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
SriLankan Airlines (Colombo)

Airport upgrades

Talks had been ongoing for the last decade and a half for upgrading Bangalore's airport to international standards. The unprecedented growth of private low cost air carriers has left the authorities with logistical nightmares in the terminal in supporting day to day operations. Low cost carriers like Air Deccan have made Bangalore a major hub, with flights connecting to smaller cities like Mangalore and Belgaum. Completely building a new airport (as opposed to upgrading the current HAL airport) eventually won out with the new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) finally being realized in principle.

Construction of the new airport has begun from July 2, 2005 and commercial operation is slated to begin in April 2008. Originally, this airport was to be able to handle 5 million passengers annually, with a single runway (13200 ft length) in the first phase. However, given the sharp increase in passenger traffic in 2005, the airport has been redesigned so that its terminals will handle 11 million passengers in the first phase, and will open as scheduled in April 2008. The cost of this change is estimated at Rs 4.5 billion and it would be borne by the private consortium.

Airports in Vicinity
Airport Name Distance from Bangalore Airport
VOYK (IAF) Yelanka 30 Km.
VOJK (Jakkur) (Flying club by State Government) 22 Km.

**Airports in Vicinity**
Airport Name	Distance from Bangalore Airport
VOYK (IAF) Yelanka	30 Km.
VOJK (Jakkur) (Flying club by State Government)	22 Km.

External links

Airports in India

(1)Designated as customs airports. A few International flights operates from here.

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